Parties involved in the ongoing legal dispute over the reorganization of Shelby County's public schools agreed Thursday to try and reach a settlement using mediation, with sessions to begin on Monday.

Attorneys spoke by teleconference Thursday morning with U.S. District Judge Samuel "Hardy" Mays, who has been expected to issue a ruling any day on state constitutional challenges to 2011 and 2012 state laws that would enable new municipal school districts to form in six suburban municipalities.

Those involved refused to comment, saying the judge had ordered them not to divulge any details about the process. Several sources familiar with the talks confirmed that the sessions will begin on Monday, with Mays serving as mediator.

There were changes on the judge's calendar Thursday clearing time for next week, among them a note that a Monday sentencing for notorious drug lord Craig Petties was being reset.

The primary parties involved are: the Shelby County Commission, Memphis City Council and city of Memphis as plaintiffs vs. the state of Tennessee and six suburban municipalities, represented collectively by attorneys from the firm Burch, Porter & Johnson.

Officials in Bartlett and Germantown met in closed-door meetings Thursday to discuss school issues. The Arlington Board of Mayor and Aldermen has scheduled a similar attorney-client meeting on the schools matter at 5 p.m. on Friday.

The judge had set a mediation deadline for Nov. 27, and attorneys involved recently began discussing whether there might be ways to resolve issues and forge a settlement.

Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington overwhelmingly approved referendums in August approving new municipal school districts, and the Shelby County Election Commission is set to certify results of school board elections from the Nov. 6 elections on Nov. 26.

Mays said in July, when denying a preliminary injunction to stop the referendums, that he was still prepared to void the referendums and the school board results if he found that the state legislation enabling municipal school referendums and the creation of the school boards violated the state or federal constitutions.

The Republican-dominated state legislature pushed through laws in 2011 and 2012 that would allow for lifting the statewide ban on new municipal or special school districts in circumstances where a large school system like Memphis City Schools forced consolidation with a smaller county system like the suburban Shelby County Schools system.

A trial in September concerned whether the laws allowing the statewide ban to be lifted on new municipal school districts applied solely in Shelby County and are thus unconstitutional.

Another trial is scheduled for Jan. 3 over civil-rights challenges to municipal school districts, with the County Commission and city claiming that allowing municipalities to create their own districts will lead to schools in Shelby County becoming more segregated and unequal. The state and suburbs have asked Mays to dismiss those claims altogether, claiming that the new school districts would not be segregated and that there is no proof of any intent to discriminate.

The suburbs, meanwhile, have moved forward with plans to open districts in time for next school year to allow their residents to opt out of sending their children to the new countywide public schools system that will open upon the completion of the merger of Memphis and Shelby County Schools on July 1, 2013. Germantown recently reached an agreement to lease office space for its planned board and administration.

Attempts at mediation were not expected. At a hearing in August, the attorneys did not include a mediation deadline until Mays insisted on it, and after that, those on either side still said publicly they did not see any areas where agreements could be forged.

Mays pushed hard last year for mediated settlement to the original suburban lawsuit aimed at blocking consolidation of MCS and SCS. But attempts in the spring of 2011 failed to find a settlement.

Mays issued a ruling in August 2011 upholding the forced consolidation while allowing a suburban-backed new 2011 state law to guide a two-year merger process.

A settlement was reached after that ruling, creating a temporary unified 23-member school board overseeing MCS, SCS and the merger process, although the resulting consent agreement did not address the issue of municipal school districts. In his August ruling, Mays declined to determine the legality of lifting the statewide ban on municipal school districts, saying the issue was not yet ripe.

The judge agreed this past summer to take up the issue and allowed the County Commission and the city their new complaints challenging the those new municipal school district laws.

Legal expenses related to the reorganization of public schools in the county, through the end of August, has exceeded $2 million.